You just don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone…
Sure, I stopped watching HxH episode-to-episode (episode X episode?) with the ‘Chimera Ant’ arc , but I still couldn't help but check in periodically to see what Gon and Killua were up to. There was no sense of urgency, because the show was obviously going to be running forever. When I caught Episode #148, I just assumed it was the conclusion of this ‘Chairman Election arc,’ teasing the start of the next arc - - one where Gon and Ging would start their real monster hunting.
Little did I know… that would actually be the last episode. Tears in the rain, and all that. So, in the name of completism, I figured I ought to go back and watch the episodes I’d missed in this arc…
My feelings on the show haven’t changed substantially from what I expressed in my last rant. I suppose I’d phrased them a little more complimentarily now, though (even while I still had the hardest time staying awake during the episode that’s entirely focused on the Hunters' executive board debating the specifics of their voting process). == TEASER ==
HxH’s popularity with shonen fans seems to come down to the fact that it’s almost comprehensively constructed for viewers burnt out from watching hundreds-unto-thousands hours of shonen. I discussed how that applied to the treatment of villains in today’s Vice Pit, and here, it can be seen in the screen time lavished on the electoral process.
And I get it, now - - I’ve had the same experience with other pulp traditions. Read/watch/consume enough heroic adventures and, after a while, your interest in the good vs. evil struggle actually wanes, and you start wondering about the minutia that’s normally skipped over in the name of pacing. If you’ve watched so much YU YU HAKUSHO, then you’d really rather learn more about the bureaucracy of the Spirit World than see another new bad guy come along whom Yusuke’s going to have another prolonged battle with. I can understand that.
So, it’s sort-of like Togashi designed Gon and Killua to be so immediately recognizable as archetypal shonen heroes, expecting his audience to implicitly understand that they’d been on hundreds of adventures as hunters without actually needing to show those adventures. With that out of the way, he can focus on matters like this election, which get along on that sort of familiarity. And so, seeing that, it makes a lot of sense for me as to why the show’s most fervent supporters are typically fans whose tally of NARUTO, DRAGON BALL, BLEACH, FAIRY TAIL and ONE PIECE episodes is up in the quadruple digits. I’ve enjoyed comics that do the same thing for superhero fans, and I can recognize it here, even if I don’t have the same sort of ‘log time’ that allows me to enjoy it at all times.
Anyway, these are my thoughts on number #137-141. Stay tuned for my take on the second half soon.
from Anime Vice Site Mashup http://ift.tt/1nN7NAD
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